


Two Slow Dancers

by starstruckmoons



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Established Relationship, F/M, Inspired by Music, Inspired by a Mitski Song, Love, Missing Scene, One Shot, Slow Dancing, True Love, maybe? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:27:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28762545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starstruckmoons/pseuds/starstruckmoons
Summary: Jack and Bella slow dance in their kitchen at night. Jack reminisces.
Relationships: Bella Crawford/Jack Crawford
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Two Slow Dancers

The thing that Jack had learned about love was all of the little places it could be found.

Love could be found in the book left on the living room table, with a small straw being used as a bookmark sticking out the top. Love could be found in hands and the lemon-scented lotion that Bella applied every so often. Love was something to be found in the morning coffees and scrambled eggs, hidden among gentle laughter. Love was something to be found in the cracks of kitchen tiles and the gentle clicking that Bella’s slippers made as she glided over them.

There is no music playing as Jack and Bella move together, gliding across the kitchen floor in each other’s arms, but there doesn’t need to be. Their hearts alone were enough to sustain them, carrying a steady rhythm, carrying their bodies that had become so tired. Things weren’t like they used to be. Neither of them the people that they were in their youths. They never would be those people again, but they were together. Together as they had been for years now. Together as they swore to each other when saying ‘in life and death.’

Jack doesn’t pause when Bella begins humming into his chest. It feels like home to hear her humming, to hear the melodies of her brain aloud. The first time he had heard it, he had been taken aback. The second time he learned what the humming meant: safety. Jack and Bella were safe with each other, safer than they could be around anybody else. That’s what home felt like. Safety. Some argued that you couldn’t find a home in a person. Jack disagreed.

That’s what love was. Finding a good feeling, finding safety, and building upon that foundation.

“You have work in the morning,” Bella mumbles.

But the next thing is what matters. She doesn’t move away. Instead, she buries her face deeper into Jack’s chest. Work would come in the morning, but this was their now. This was their present, and he didn’t need to face it alone. It’s the scent of coconut shampoo that reminds him that Bella wasn’t letting go no matter how difficult things became. It wasn’t easy. Love was never easy. But it was with it. Love had been so with it. And if Jack could go back in time, he would choose love time and time again.

All lovers lived with the knowledge that eventually, the future would come chasing them down. That she, with all of her impatience and apathy, would take her years back for those that had been stolen. All lovers lived, and all lovers one day would die. It was this that made loving and loving fully so important.

“You don’t seem too concerned about work.”

“I’ll get Jimmy to head in early.”

“Mhm,” Bella laughs. Her laugh has always carried this lighter than life quality to it. It was just another one of those things that made her beautiful, that made her stand out in a crowd of thousands. Years could pass, decades even, without Jack seeing Bella, but he would be able to recognize her still by laugh alone. If for no other reason, then because the light hit her differently when she felt joy. “I want to start a garden with you.”

A garden. It made perfect sense for Bella. She alone could make the Sun come out and rain pour. Even Sunflowers and Eucalyptus trees paused to admire her beauty. If Bella were half as tender with plants as she was with Jack, they would be in the best of hands. It was a testament to the love that she had for the world, for everything living around her. As long as she allowed Jack to stand by her side, he would be in the garden too, holding the seeds for Hydrangeas and Orchid Trees.

Jack and Bella swayed with each other until they were carried to another time, another Universe. Maybe in a kinder world, they were still in Italy. They would be taking a gondola ride through the Venice canals, and Jack would smile on as Bella named Birds native to the area. They would be out far too late, dining on all the things they had never tried to before, and when Bella ordered dessert for the two of them, Jack wouldn’t be able to turn it down. Even after all these years, he had a weakness for her smile. He would always be won over by the way her mouth would tilt upwards at the ends of words and the way she closed her eyes when trying not to laugh.

There had been dreams of travel once. Bella had been dying to see Victor Hugo’s house, just as Jack longed to travel to Brazil. These were the futures that they had promised each other. The futures that could be saved for after they found stability. That stability had never ended up coming, not for long enough to be the world travelers their younger selves believed they would be. No. Reality came crawling in all too soon, and they weren’t young anymore. Time had made itself known on their faces and in their bones. Things couldn’t stay the same, but they had lived in spite of it all.

They had lived, and even that seemed like a miracle some days.

Jack’s job hadn’t made a cynic of him yet, but it had made him a realist. Realists were smart enough to know when they did things that put them in danger. Realists knew there was no returning to before the ripper case. He had gone looking, and there would be consequences to meet him, but as he stood in Bella’s arms in the dark of the kitchen, he didn’t feel consequence. What he felt was love. Love in a real way. Love in the littler ways that made us all human. 

It was uncommon to experience religion in a kitchen. But this could be religion. Love could be a religion. Bella’s vanilla and lavender perfume could be a religion. Slow dancing by the moonlight could be a religion. And religions required devotion and patience to stay alive. Religions needed worship. So as long as Jack and Bella Crawford were still standing, he would kiss her forehead every morning and evening as his own communion.

They slow danced until they were tired. They slow danced until their arms became weak, and their eyes grew heavy. They slow danced until they found themselves in their bedroom again, wrapped up in each other’s arms and each other’s love, and as they drifted into a singular sleep, Jack came to a realization.

They could make it out. As long as they were in each other's arms.

**Author's Note:**

> this was short but i'm going to be writing some more jack and bella stuff!! just wanted to get this out of my system. hope you all are doing okay and having a great day! stay safe <3


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